


Artemis Backstory

by WyvrnaKindSoul



Category: Undertale, dreamswap - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 17:14:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18451028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WyvrnaKindSoul/pseuds/WyvrnaKindSoul
Summary: Nightmare tries to work undercover in Justice Reigns, but it goes differently than expected.





	1. The Start

“Are you sure this is a good idea? It’s one thing to sneak in, but another to straight up go undercover!”

“I know, but I promise it’ll be worthwhile in the end.”

“But how are you going to conceal your aura? You’ll be spotted a mile away by your brother.”

“I… got some help with that.”

“What did you do?”

Nightmare held out his arm, a small chip was barely visible near his armpit. “I won’t go into details, due to a promise I made, but what I can say is this should hide my SOUL and aura. It’ll make me look like a normal monster internally.”

Error inspected the chip, then his boyfriend’s face, “I guess that explains your eyelights. But are you still sure you can pull this off? You’re practically digging your own grave.”

“I doubt we’ll be able to know when you get caught, much less save you,” Cross interjected. “Remind me again why you’re going this?”

Nightmare sighed, adjusting his disguise, “Dream won’t listen to anyone like us when it comes to his views. But he may listen to someone who works for him. I know it’ll take a while, but I hope no one sees through this. I’ve gone through hell and back to take extra precautions.”

“What about fighting? Won’t some of the guards recognize your staff?” Cross asked again.

“I did a little extra training ever since I got the chip. I can no longer summon that so I learned to make a new one.”

He gave his boyfriends one last hug and kiss, handing Cross his circlet, before opening a portal just outside JR’s borders, and turned to face them one last time.

He smiled, “See you soon, maybe when I’m arresting you two.” He laughed as Cross flipped him off as the portal closed.

Nightmare took a deep breath, hoping his measures turn to be worth it in the end.

-

-

Luckily, it was easy for him to enter with little to no suspicion, Nightmare had to admit it was good most of the trainees never heard of him. Unfortunately for him, he had to come up with a new name for him, and he mentally slapped himself for not thinking of that before.

He stood nervously in front of the commander’s stone cold face, rushing through his mind for a good name.

“Well?” the commander repeated, almost shouting, “Are you deaf? Or am talking too quietly?!”

“Artemis!” Nightmare suddenly shouted louder than normal. He cleared his throat and repeated a tad quieter, “My name is Artemis, sir.” The formality made him more nervous.

“Alright then, learn to speak faster next time Artemis. Am I clear?”

“Sir yes, sir.” Nightmare responded.

And that wasn’t even the worst part.

The training.

The rigorous training was endless and exhausting. He swore he didn’t remember reading this before.

“Hey Ar, you okay?” One of the other trainees called from the top bunk.

Nightmare rubbed his sore shoulder, “Yeah, just a bad shoulder.”

They chuckled, “Oh come on, admit it. Everyone’s talking about how shitty this place is.”

Nightmare laughed, “Yeah. I heard Justice Reigns isn’t this, you know.”

One of their ears twitched, “Extreme?”

“Yeah, that.”

They laughed, “Well, should be worthwhile in the end. Night!”

“Goodnight.”

-

-

After months of extreme training, Nightmare finally got out of that hell hole as a certified member of Justice Reigns (He _still_ couldn’t believe he’s working for the very thing he’s against), given by Dream himself.

“Welcome to Justice Reigns, Artemis.” Dream shook Nightmare’s hand, making Nightmare tense up a bit.

“You seem a bit tense, are you okay?” Dream tilted his head slightly.

Nightmare cleared his throat, “Yes. I never thought I’d make it this far.” _Augh I hate this!_

Dream nodded and walked on to the next person. Nightmare clutched the new pin in his hands.

_Cross, Error, I made it. Let’s hope I don’t get caught now._

_-_

_-_

Nightmare patrolled through the halls with his partner, bored already.

“You seem to know these halls pretty well!” His partner caught up to him. “At least help a pal out!”

Nightmare giggled, “Eh, let’s just say I’ve taken some extra time to study the layout a bit.”

“Must be quite the supporter for Lord Dream huh?”

Nightmare’s eye twitched slightly, “Yeah. Hey, in the weeks we’ve known each other, I never caught your name.”

His partner’s ears twitched as he laughed, “Oh yeah, and here I am knowing your name like we’re pals! Name’s Fennan!”

Nightmare smiled, continuing patrol with Fennan.

Alarms soon blared, Nightmare resisted the urge to run the other way and followed Fennan to Dream’s office.

They found three other pairs of guards in front of Dream’s desk, Ink hanging next to the seraphim with red eyes.

“Lord Dream!” Fennan spurted, saluting, “What is the problem?!”

Dream sighed, rising from his desk, “There’s a Betty from a Glitchtale AU who has grown too dangerous. She’s able to traverse to other universes and she’s already causing too much chaos in this AU.” He handed the work to another guard. “She must be stopped. I’m sending you eight along with Ink to lead the party. Best of luck to all of you. Kill her and return, that’s all I need. Dismissed.”

Ink impatiently led the eight through, not even waiting for them to catch up.

Fennan scoffed, getting a smirk from Nightmare as they left.

None of them expected what was coming.


	2. The Fight

Nightmare dodged a pink spear and slashed his scythe at the pink creature. Only half an hour since they reached the Betty alternate and things were already down to shit.

Four of the guards were already dust and bodies, only Ink, Fennan, two other guards and himself remained to take the creature down.

“Fennan! How’s Ink?” one of the guards called.

Fennan struggled to heal Ink while also fending off the pink blobs that launched at every moment.

“He’s getting there!” the hybrid called, creating a wall of vines against another blob of pink.

The Betty giggled, “You all try so hard. I’m not sure whether you all are scared, or _stupid._ ”

Nightmare growled and launched another attack. _Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid._ He kept telling himself, feeling his SOUL pounding with each attack.

He suddenly slipped trying to get in close to finish her off, allowing a pink claw to attack from behind. Nightmare gasped in pain as the claw hit him. He rolled to the ground, trying to keep his back away from Betty.

“Aren’t you a determined one?” Betty teased to Nightmare.

“I just happened to like finishing things off.” He picked himself up, ignoring the pain.

Betty smiled maliciously suddenly, confusing Nightmare. He summoned his scythe to attack again, but his vision changed.

Where Betty stood, stood Cross. He just smiled at him.

“Come on, you wouldn’t kill someone you love right.”

Nightmare couldn’t move. Why was Cross here? Why couldn’t he speak?

“Why are you afraid? Seeing ghosts?” Cross’s smile suddenly turned demonic, like a Chara’s, and his eyes were both red. Black substance poured down his eyes. “Or have you yet to see a ghost?” He raised his arm.

“Artemis!” He heard someone call.

The demonic Cross raised his arm, summoning his knife. He charged at Nightmare.

Fennan couldn’t think. His partner just stood there frozen.

“Artemis get out of there!” He called again.

The hybrid looked at his partner, then back at Ink, then back at his partner. Does he help Artemis but leave his party leader? Or protect Ink and leave Artemis to die?

Nightmare blinked, seeing Betty with a pink claw for an arm for a moment before flashing back to the demonic Cross.

He regained himself for a second, ducking before he was hit.

But he wasn’t fast enough.

Betty managed to slash her claw to Nightmare’s head, flakes of bone falling to the ground. Fennan rushed to Nightmare’s aid, summoning a dome of vines around them.

“Artemis! Are you okay?!” Fennan checked Nightmare’s head. There didn’t seem to be any fatal wounds shown, dark blue blood stained the top right of his skull and his back.

“Y-yeah. I can take another hit. G-go take care of Ink.” Nightmare picked himself up.

Fennan grabbed his arm. “Nononono. You need to rest. Another hit like that and I’ll need a new partner.”

Nightmare turned to face him, “Who else will take care of Ink?! I’ll be fine, jus-“

A crash against the vines interrupted Nightmare, pink blobs leaking in between the thorns. Nightmare summoned his scythe, the dark blue magic flickering.

“Drop the vines.” Nightmare commanded.

Fennan nodded, summoning his staff and dropping the vines. Betty smiled, summoning a pink scythe as her Akumu bore a similar smile.

“The cowards show themselves at last. You’re lucky the soulless one has been spared. Kumu, get the skeleton.”

The pink familiar grew in size, launching itself at Nightmare.

Nightmare slashed his scythe in defense as Fennan went staff to scythe at Betty. Akumu shifted into a sickled form, slashing at Nightmare from all angles as Nightmare kept defending. Soon he was running out of room to defend as they neared a cliff edge. Blood seeped from his arms as the familiar landed more hits on Nightmare.

Fennan wasn’t holding well either. His vines grew weaker as Betty’s attacks grew stronger.

Nightmare didn’t need to sense his feelings to tell his partner’s fear was growing.

The hybrid staggered, batting away the blobs and trying to get in close to Betty.

Once he managed to get in close, he raised a vine to slash Betty. She staggered back, the vine growing pink and lashing itself back at Fennan.

He ducked and rolled, creating an opening to strike at Betty.

She smiled again, and Fennan suddenly froze. Nightmare saw his eyes turn pink, and he bore the same fearful expression as the same guards who met their end.

“Fennan!” Nightmare dodged Akumu once again. He tried to get his partners attention, but he wouldn’t respond.

“M-mother?” He heard Fennan say, “B-but you were killed.”

Betty smiled, Akumu returning to her and turning into a spear.

“No!” Nightmare couldn’t bear to see Fennan die.

Betty launched her spear, aimed at Fennan’s chest.

Fennan blinked, his eyes returning to orange and black. He saw his partner in front of him, a pink spear skewered through his head and dark blue blood splattered on Fennan’s chest.

“ARTEMIS!” Fennan cried, catching him in his arms. Artemis wasn’t moving, the blood kept leaking from the hole in his head.

Fennan had no time to stop Betty. He grabbed Ink and Artemis and teleported, not waiting to see what Betty could do next.


	3. The Recovery

He landed in the entrance of the Justice Reigns ER, frantic.

“Help! We need a doctor!” Fennan called, catching the attention of multiple doctors. They gathered around, grabbing Artemis and Ink and settling them into medic beds.

Dream rushed in, noticing the panic, “Fennan, report.”

The hybrid turned to face Dream and saluted him, “My Lord, the battle was awful. She was too strong. Only me, Ink, and Artemis escaped alive. I would’ve been dead if it weren’t for,” his voice cracked, tears stinging his eyes as his ears drooped.

Dream patted his shoulder, “Don’t worry, we’re going to do everything we can to help Artemis recover. Ink too.”

Fennan nodded, trying to keep his stature.

Dream noticed, “Take the rest of the day off, I can tell you need it.”

The hybrid’s ears raised, “R-really?”

“Yes, I can tell this was a bit much for you. I’m at fault for putting you two on such a dangerous mission. We’ll gather up a stronger team to take down this Betty. Dismissed.” Dream turned and walked to the doctors, making sure Ink and Artemis were stable.

-

-

Fennan sat at his partner’s bed, watching Artemis’s resting body. His hat was resting on the counter and a blue stained bandage was wrapped around the top right part of his skull.

Artemis lay with a blank face. His eyes were open, but he made no indication he was awake.

“Please wake up Artemis.” Fennan grasped his partner’s hand, “I can’t bear to see you gone.”

“You really care that much about him huh?” Ink game up behind the hybrid.

Fennan stood up and turned, “I-uh,”

“Save your words. Boss wanted me to check up on Artemis.” Ink had a couple of patches stained black on himself. “You’ve been staying next to him every time you got the chance. You think you’d get bored after waiting for him for three weeks.”

“He’ll wake up, I just know it.” Fennan turned back to Artemis, making Ink scoff and leave.

-

-

Darkness.

Silence.

He felt his eyes were open, but he couldn’t see at all.

He couldn’t move either.

He could feel, but he also felt numb.

“He should be waking up soon.” He heard someone say.

 _What happened?_ He heard himself.

Where was he? Why did his mind feel fuzzy?

“I hope so. I don’t know what I’ll do without him.” Another voice said.

He felt feeling in his fingers, he tried to move them around causing them to twitch.

“Look!”

“Is he really waking up?”

The darkness brightened, a golden background filling his entire view. He spotted an orange and green figure with fox ears on his left. He wore a worried expression.

The other blended with the background, he was tall with wings and wore a confused expression and stood on his right.

“Are you okay?” The one on the left asked. He felt the person’s hand grasp his own.

All he could say were a few mumbles. Feeling came back within his bones as he sat up. The one grasping his hand reached and hugged him.

“I’m glad you’re awake. How are you feeling?” the winged one asked.

“G-good.” He felt his words come back to him. “W-where am I? Who am I?”

The expressions on their faces turned to mortified. Especially on the left person.

“Oh dear. Looks like there was more trauma to his head than we thought.” The winged one checked a machine to his right.

“I hope he remembers me at least. Listen. What is my name?” The one on the left asked.

It took him a while, but memories started flooding back.

“F-Fennan?”

The hybrid hugged him again, tears pouring from his eyes.

“Yes! Stars I was so worried.” His ears twitched.

He turned to the winged figure, “Lord Dream. Right?”

Dream nodded, “What do you last remember?”

He thought for a bit. Every minute memories kept flooding in.

“The earliest I remember is, training to join Justice Reigns.”

Fennan’s ears twitched again, “You don’t remember anything before that?”

Dream tilted his head, “Do you at least remember your name?”

He nodded, “My name, is Artemis.”


End file.
